Silent auctions, such as those implemented for charity and fund-raising events, typically follow a similar manual format. For example, bidders write their names or identification numbers, as well as their bid amounts, to submit bids for each item being auctioned, thereby publicly displaying the bids. Each bidder may “outbid” another by manually writing his name along with an amount greater than that of the previous high bidder. At the end of the silent auction, all bids may be collected and the winning bidder on each item announced. Such traditional techniques usually require bidders to take an active role in monitoring their own bids with respect to several items and travel from one location to another in order to place additional bids, assuming they remain interested in bidding on the items available for auction. In addition, such methods normally involve substantive paperwork and may be associated with checkout errors.